``This is not satisfactory,'' Thilak Ranavirajah, chief of the task force to coordinate relief, said.

``The president directed me to see that all families - or at least 70 percent to 75 percent of them - get relief by this weekend.''

The December 26 earthquake and tsunami killed more than 30,000 in Sri Lanka and affected another 960,000 people, who lost family members or their homes.

Ranavirajah said bureaucratic incompetence and ignorance of tsunami survivors had considerably slowed aid delivery. His figures excluded areas in the north and east under Tamil Tiger rebel control.

The comments came a day after the government began investigating complaints that food aid intended for tsunami victims in eastern Batticaloa had disappeared and that some of the homeless living in camps were being fed rotten supplies.

Hundreds protested Monday in the eastern town of Trincomalee, claiming the government had given them no food aid or offers of help to rebuild their lives.

The government estimates that it will cost US$103 million (US$803.4 million) to compensate the surviving families and provide food rations for the next six months.

``I don't know from where the treasury will find the money, but my problem is that our public servants have failed to deliver what the government wants given to those in need,'' Ranavirajah said.

``There will be a certain amount of corruption,'' he added, vowing action against anyone found guilty of graft.

Ranavirajah also ordered all government employees involved in relief activities to report to work tomorrow despite it being a national holiday for Independence Day.

The bleak situation in Sri Lanka jarred with a reading from the World Bank in Washington.

According to Alastair McKechnie, the bank's country director for South Asia, countries hit by the quake and tsunamis were well into rebuilding, helped by an unprecedented outpouring of aid for humanitarian relief.

There was sufficient money for the United Nations, non-governmental groups and other organizations to implement an effective humanitarian assistance program, he said, ``and this has enabled countries to move quickly to the next phase.'' McKechnie and other senior bank officials had Tuesday addressed shareholder governments of the global development institution on the bank's response as the lead agency for international rebuilding efforts.

For several weeks, World Bank, UN and Asian Development Bank officials have been in tsunami-hit Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Maldives and India evaluating damage and talking through plans for financial and technical support.

The reconstruction bill for countries could be much higher than an initial estimate of US$7 billion, McKechnie said. Rebuilding could take from three to five years, he added. Most money currently pledged by donors is for humanitarian relief, and McKechnie said more aid would be needed for reconstruction efforts.

UN data show donor commitments for humanitarian relief efforts have reached US$5.3 billion, while private donations are between US$1 billion and US$2 billion.

McKechnie stressed a need to streamline aid flows and to avoid burdening governments with bureaucratic red tape.ASSOCIATED PRESS, REUTERS